Ethnic
businesses make a significant contribution to the
UK economy. For example 12% of all business start ups now feature
ethnic enterprises.Why then have many mainstream UK businesses been
unable to harness the opportunities offered by this valuable element
of the economy? Incorporating ethnic businesses into their supply
chains or engaging them as customers must be a priority but establishing
an effective method of communication often evades even the largest
corporate body.

In 'The
British and how to deal with them' Ram Gidoomal, Deepak
Mahtani and David Porter demonstrate the importance of ethnic businesses
to the UK. The book illustrates the characteristics of the ethnic
communities and discusses how to build cross-cultural relationships.
It is a map of territory that is largely uncharted and celebrates
a national resource that has often gone completely ignored.The authors
also identify a number of'fault-lines' which affect the integration
of ethnic businesses into the UK economy.